(Your Voice in a World where Zionism, Steel, and Fire have
turned Justice Mute)

by Nabila Harb\FAV Co-Editor

As we near the 'anniversary' of '9/11', the power of the media ensures not only that the attacks will be remembered, but that they will remain a powerful weapon of propaganda in the hands of the U.S. government. Public and private events are being organised in 'commemoration' of the attacks and their 'victims'. In the United States, all normal television programming on every major channel as well as most of the so-called 'independent' local channels will be pre-empted in order to air programmes about '9/11'. Every one is getting into the act. No doubt the entrepreneurs who made a small fortune selling American flags, souvenirs of '9/11' as well as jewelry and other sundry accessories relating to the events are ready with a new line of products to offer the public. It is a media circus, and the ringmaster is George W. Bush, Jr.

The advent of mass media created a general perception that information, news and education had become easily accessible to every one throughout the world. There is a basic assumption that knowledge is readily available now, that news and information are disseminated to every one, and that, therefore, ignorance is no longer an excuse where political and social realities are concerned.

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Appearances are no less deceptive than in the past. The information and news that are provided to the world are nothing more than half-truths and propaganda. What is occurring is a mass brainwashing of the world's population by the media and governments in partnership with the media. Authentic culture is being subverted by a universal substitute for culture that consists of carefully chosen news bytes, fast food, facile fashions and quick commentaries on every aspect of life by so-called experts in every conceivable field and topic. Complete and unadulterated coverage of actual events and their significance is buried beneath a continual massive outpouring of sanitised and carefully edited 'news'.

People have remarked upon this before, but there is one significant aspect of this situation that has not been addressed fully. The corollary to this endless onslaught of doctored information is the presumption that people are informed, that every one is an expert in terms of politics and society and that therefore, they are qualified to make judgments that affect their own society or other societies throughout the globe. In point of fact, it is prejudice rather than knowledge that is being served to the people. It has been said that 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing' and the 'education' of the masses through the media is very much a case in point. It is not so much that people are being manipulated, but that the power to act upon these misrepresentations and to change the fabric of the whole world is so much greater. In short, the news and information provided to the American people has a global effect.

A very dramatic example of this can be seen in the results of the hijackings of 11 September. For a start, the actual attacks were aired on the television at once. The news was 'live' from New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. Almost every one in the States 'experienced' the attacks through the power of the media. People who had merely watched images of the attacks captured on video felt like 'survivors' of the attacks, and this feeling was exploited by the American government, and especially by Bush. The entire nation was placed on 'alert' and the whole population was led to believe that it was in danger of extermination. All air traffic was suspended; all airplanes were grounded. Business, both public and private, came to a very dramatic halt. The government of the U.S. virtually went into hiding. The actions of 19 individuals were blown completely out of proportion to create a monster in the collective American imagination. Although every 'hi jacker' perished in the attacks, Bush declared war upon 'the Terrorists', an 'enemy' that was essentially the creation of the U.S. government and media. This was the immediate result of the attacks of 11 September.

Was this, in fact, reality or fiction? In point of fact, reality was carefully embroidered and augmented by both the U.S. government and mass media to deliberately foster a sense of hysteria and panic throughout the U.S. This placed Bush, a weak individual whose very assumption of the position of Chief Executive was in dispute at that time, in the role of potential 'saviour of the Nation'. In order to save the people from the threat of 'terrorism', Bush argued that he needed to be given absolute power. The American people, fully cowed by the spectre of extermination at the hands of 'an evil network of terrorists', failed to question the facts or the need for a President to assume such an unconstitutional degree of power. One year later, the traditional 'balance of power' between Executive, Legislative and Judicial Powers no longer exists. The Executive holds powers far in excess of its mandate, and the Legislature and Judiciary have failed to protect the American people from the only REAL threat, which is loss of civil rights and freedom.

As the 'anniversary' of 11 September approaches, the media plans a seemingly endless cycle of programming related to the 'attacks'. The proposed 24 hour week long coverage of the attacks of 11 September 2001, rather than being designed to 'honour the victims' of the attacks, represents the flowering of a full scale propaganda war. Its primary foreign target is Iraq. Its domestic target is the U.S. Constitution and the rights supposedly guaranteed to the American people.

Despite complete lack of support in the international community for a war against Iraq, Bush is determined to launch this war. Recently, he has made it quite clear that the Executive has the power to unilaterally embark upon a war against a foreign power with or without the support of Congress. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, Bush is defying the judicial system and insisting upon an unconstitutional power to hold individuals in custody indefinitely without showing cause or divulging the whereabouts of such individuals. Such acts rival the worst excesses of the Inquisition, the infamous Venetian Council of Ten or the French 'oubliettes' prior to the Revolution. The American jail system has become the equivalent of the Bastille prison where individuals frowned upon by Bush and his cohorts can be made to disappear almost without a trace. Neither the families nor the lawyers appointed for these individuals have any right now to information with respect not only to the charges under which they have been detained, but even to their location within the prison system. This is a terrifying turn of events, and yet the general public is so distracted by continuing illusionary threats of 'terrorism' that it fails to protest or even to understand that it is being robbed of its rights by the very government that claims to represent it. Every argument on behalf of Constitutional and human rights is being defeated in the courts and yet the general public is more concerned about the government of Iraq, a foreign sovereign nation with a right to self-determination according to international laws. Bush and his henchmen are assuming total control and transforming the U.S. into a police state while they terrorise the people of the United States with propaganda about a 'new axis of evil' and hypothetical 'weapons of mass destruction' in the hands of foreign powers or groups perceived as hostile to the U.S. Where Nixon illegally assumed powers in secret and ultimately was impeached for doing so, Bush is openly asserting the right to operate in secret. The reason he is able to do so is the ongoing sense of terror he and the media have cultivated in the souls of the American people. The 'anniversary' of the attacks of 11 September will be the icing on the cake of this propaganda adventure.

What, then is the reality of the events of 11 September and who are the actual victims? The media and U.S. government would like to pretend that it is the individuals who died on the four airplanes, in the Twin Towers and in the Pentagon, not only those who happened to be travelling and working in those areas, but those who attempted to carry out rescue operations as well. In all honesty, though, there is nothing different about these deaths than the death of any one who falls victim to a random act of violence or 'act of God'. The man run over by a speeding automobile is no less a victim than the people who died on those airplanes. As for the rescue workers and firefighters who sacrificed their lives, they certainly are heroes, but no more so than any firefighter who rescues a family from a burning building. There are no real political connotations to their acts, and yet, they have been transformed into a symbol of American flag-waving and political propaganda to assist Bush in his metamorp hosis from a fundamentally weak and immature man to a super-leader.

'The need to wage war against Iraq is rooted in many factors, not the least of which is a failing U.S. economy and the economic interests of Bush himself as well as those whom he represents. The war on Afghanistan last year similarly was based partly upon an economic interest in proposals for a natural gas pipeline in the region and a contract that had been kept in abeyance by the Taliban's refusal to allow such a pipeline to be constructed. The invasion of Afghanistan moreover diverted the public from rising unemployment and other domestic ills, and allowed the government to increase military spending, a primary source of support for Bush. A war with Iraq would have the same effect. On local levels, the criminal behaviour and betrayal of large corporations such as World.Com and Enron, and the closing of many factories and 'downsizing' of numerous corporations with subsequent dramatic surge in unemployment must be countered somehow. A substantial number of individuals who formerly planned to retire at the end of their fifties, having been laid off from jobs they held for decades, must scramble to find new employment, competing with young college graduates who are unable to find a job within their own area of expertise. The security of Social Security has become an illusion. Welfare programmes, whic h formerly were of some assistance to the needy and the unemployed are being legislated out of existence. In such an environment, the general public must be convinced of a greater emergency than their own personal woes if the government is to retain any degree of influence. Nothing is more successful in convincing the general population to rally behind the government than a threat of invasion, however spurious. The hijackings of 11 September, blown out of all proportion during the course of the past year, provided a means through which the public could be kept in a state of constant anxiety, and be made to believe that their only hope of survival lay in the hands of a strong Executive.

In a much smaller way, Bush's constant struggle to achieve as much as his father and indeed to outdistance him is partly responsible for his stubborn determination to attack Iraq. Bush Senior recovered his faltering popularity through the military adventure of Desert Storm. (One must remember as well that George H. W. Bush Sr. had to ride out the scandals of the Savings and Loans debacle in the same way as his son must survive the scandals of Enron and World.com. HIS war on Iraq served as an excellent diversion and a means by which to reward his economic cronies in the military sphere for their loyalty.) The 'Junior' after the son's name, in the current President's mind, can be eradicated only if he becomes more famous than George W. Bush, Sr. and fights a bigger and better war than his father. Many little boys have grandiose fantasies of fighting battles against an enemy, and of becoming triumphant heroes. Most of those little boys grow up and at least make an effort to surren der their infantile dreams to adult ambitions of attaining real success in life. Unfortunately, Junior Bush never has been able to mature. The vision of his father as President of the United States is a primary motivation for everything he does. Unfortunately, his childish obsession has global effects.

The attacks of 11 September were the vehicle through which Junior Bush began to transform his grandiose military fantasies into reality, provide a means through which to reward his supporters in the military economic sphere and distract the people from the realities of a weak economy. If the attacks had not taken place, Bush would have had to invent them, and indeed, much regarding the attacks is pure fabrication. Although the official media propaganda continues to support the idea of the attacks purely and simply as the work of a 'network of enemy terrorists' operating as part of an organisation known as Al Qaeda, too many questions and discrepancies exist in fact to allow objective acceptance of this. The timing of the attacks was far too convenient for a start. At the beginning of September 2001, Junior Bush was facing public derision, a sense of general doubt as to the very legitimacy of his assumption of Presidential powers. Moreover, every pet project he proposed, including additi onal funding for the military had been defeated by an unsympathetic Congress and both domestic and international opinion perceived him as a pale and unconvincing copy of his father. Then came the attacks of 11 September. Suddenly, Junior Bush morphed into a national hero, placing the U.S. on a wartime basis, and becoming a Strong Man who would not tolerate any nonsense on the part of foreigners hostile to American foreign policy, nor indeed any criticism or disagreement from his own people.

And yet, in actual fact, what did Junior Bush DO that was deserving of any admiration or praise? He brought the U.S. to a panic-striken halt with his RESPONSE to the attacks of 11 September. That was a choice rather than a necessity and one that served him very well. In the space of less than a week, he programmed the psyche of the American nation, using endless video footage of skies devoid of air traffic, a paralysed Stock Market and, lest one regain any sense of equilibrium, constant replay of the crash of the two airplanes into the Twin Towers, the subsequent crumbling of these massive structures and finally, smoke rising and hanging like a pall over the city of Manhattan.

Not only were the actual attacks repeated in the media ad nauseum, but there were warnings of further possible attacks, with the American government scurrying for cover, and government officials like Cheney being spirited from one secret location to another, purportedly in fear of a well-organised and powerful enemy. There was no invasion of American soil, no attack by an 'enemy power' and yet the acts of 19 men, however audacious and daring, were grossly exaggerated and treated like the attacks of a vanguard that threatened the U.S. 'homeland' with foreign invasion and utter annihilation.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government and media embarked upon a game of 'connect the dots', creating a puzzle that encompassed all of Junior Bush's original rejected goals and business interests and attempting to link these to the 'terrorists'. First, Bush declared Al Qaeda to be the enemy, and demanded that the government of Afghanistan cease to 'harbour' the 'terrorists'. Then he declared that the Taliban in fact could do nothing in any case to redeem itself, that it was a terrorist organisation and that its existence could not be tolerated in the interests of peace and justice. This precarious edifice of illogic was the basis of the launching of an attack against Afghanistan. Never has any connection between the Taliban and the attacks of 11 September been found, but the connection between Bush and the corporation with multi-billion dollar contracts to build pipelines for the transportation of natural gas through Afghanistan has been proven.

While Bush and the American media created the illusion of a powerful 'terrorist' enemy on the offence, with the U.S. acting not as an aggressor, but in self-defence, Sharon and the Zionist media eagerly leapt upon the propaganda bandwaggon to assert that Palestinian resistance was a 'network of terrorists' and that every day was 11 September for the Zionists occupying Palestine. Although this assertion initially was met with some of the sceptism it deserved in international quarters, as the months passed, and the media brainwashing of the masses continued, the analogy between Bush's 'terrorist organisations' and Palestinian resistance began to be accepted internationally to some extent.

In the U.S., shameless pandering to the Zionist lobbies led to actual codification of the definition of legitimate Palestinian resistance groups as 'terrorist organisations' under an act of Congress, pursuant to the so-called 'Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 and Executive Order 13224. In the States, Zionist interests in Congress and in the media continued to promote the idea of Islam itself as a terrorist religion, despite attempts by American advocacy groups and some independent journalists to inject a little reality into the situation, and a number of legitimate Islamic resistance groups were added to the list of 'terrorist organisations' pursuant to the same Act. The infamous Patriot Act 2001 gave law enforcement and government agencies extended powers otherwise deemed unconstitutional against any one accused of sympathising with any group perceived to be anti-Zionist in nature. Now Zionist and American interests not only were perceived to be one and the same but actually were defined in an Act of the American Congress as being one and the same. Pro-Palestinian activists in the U.S. now could be made to disappear without a trace without having ever committed any crime or without the necessity of any evidence being produced in an open court. 'Terrorism' has become a word so weighted with political significance that it can be used to suppress reality entirely where American foreign interests or Zionist interests are concerned. Any one who promoted resistance to the Zionist occupation of Palestine now could be considered a traitor to the United States!

Meanwhile, having 'conquered' or rather 'liberated' Afghanistan from the Taliban and the very small organisation known as Al Qaeda, and riding the tide of popularity and trust that months of relentless propaganda and replay of the attacks had given him, Junior Bush was able to turn his attention to his real goal: a war against Iraq. Although over a decade has passed since the Gulf War without any hint of threat from Iraq, a nation that has been brutally oppressed by international sanctions and whose sovereignty repeatedly has been violated, Junior Bush declares that Iraq's leader must be 'toppled' because he poses a threat to the U.S. with his illusive 'weapons of mass destruction'.

No one, amazingly asks the one pertinent question: 'If Iraq does indeed possess 'weapons of mass destruction' and the ability to strike back at an enemy that has done its utmost to destroy its society and decimate its population through the most barbarous sanctions, why has she not acted? Why does she continue to wait when every day makes her weaker? What is the proverbial straw that would break the camel's back? What further humiliation, degradation or abuse must she suffer before finally exhausting her patience and tolerance towards the U.S. and its allies?

One might ask the same question with respect to Al Qaeda. If Al Qaeda had the power to strike against the U.S., why on earth did it not act immediately after 11 September, before its camps and resources in Afghanistan were utterly destroyed? Where are the waves of attacks that it supposedly could set into motion to strike back at a government that has 'frozen its assets' (in other words, stolen its funds) worldwide and hounded its supporters from land to land? Why is this supposedly powerful organisation allowing itself to be weakened day by day as the U.S. continues to bully the international community into submission, demanding that any individual, group or organisation that dares to support the idea of resistance to American foreign policy be crushed?

The truth of the matter is that Al Qaeda is nothing more than a convenient chimera, a 'bogeyman' sustained and augmented by American and Zionist propaganda in order to gain support for the American and Zionist political and military agenda. On the home front, Bush continues to rob the American people of their fundamental rights, while on the international front, he demands that every foreign government support American and Zionist aims or be considered part of the elusive 'terrorist network' and thereby find itself the target of an American military adventure.

The Zionist control of Palestine, in the very centre of the Arab World, is perceived as vital to those who oppose Arab unity. In the same manner, a modern, technologically advanced state of Iraq was perceived as a threat. The introduction of a foreign element in the Arab Nation, in the form of the Zionist invaders, was an important imperialist goal. The next step would be for U.S./Zionist interests to gain direct control of Arab oil.

For all of Bush's talk about exploiting the natural oil resources of Alaska, as he destroys the rest of the natural resources and environment of that State, he and his supporters are very conscious of a need to control a large supply of oil in the Arab Nation. A war against Iraq would quiet the fears of the American people that the cost of petrol will rise at a time when consumer spending power is much reduced. Saudi Arabia, long accepted as an ally of the U.S. became the target of media and government propaganda after 11 September. There are those who fear that the U.S., with so much of its military strength concentrated in Saudi Arabia, intends ultimately to assume control of its government.

The warnings of Usama bin Laden of a kufr plan to control the holiest places of Islam in Makkah and Madina may not have been so far off the mark after all. Another invasion of Iraq by the U.S. would mandate a higher concentration of American military power in Saudi Arabia, and make a future move against the Saudi government much easier to accomplish. Even if the present government is allowed to remain in power, it will be held virtually in hostage by the U.S. military, while it is bled dry economically by the families of the 'victims' of 9/11 who are suing it in American courts for extraordinary and wholly unwarranted 'damages'.

Next week, while the American people and much of the international community are 'entertained' with commemorative programmes relating to the attacks of 11 September 2001, Junior Bush and his henchmen will consolidate their plans to attack Iraq. At the same time, Bush's mentor, Butcher Sharon no doubt will seize another opportunity to commit further acts of genocide towards the Palestinian people. Repeat the same lies long enough and people begin to accept them. Commit the same atrocities enough times and people will become hardened to them. Zionist acts of terrorism in the form of 'assassinations' of Palestinian resistance leaders, using weapons provided by the U.S. and of purported 'future terrorists' continue on a regular basis. The blatant murder of Palestinian old people, women and children by the Zionists continues unabated. Evidently, where Junior Bush is concerned, one need only murmer the magic word 'Terrorism' and all manner of crimes and excesses become understandable, even legitimite. &n bsp;After all, he declared, the Zionist entity has 'the right to defend itself'.

Applying the same illusion of logic, the U.S. will mount a war of naked aggression upon Iraq, citing 'the right to self-defence'. The American people, terrorised by the sight and sounds of the attacks of 11 September, replayed again and again by the media next week, and analysed ad nauseum by government propagandists, will believe that the very existence of the most powerful nation in the world is threatened somehow and that the only road to safety and security must be forged by American weapons used against Arabs and the Muslims, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq or Palestine.

''9/11' has become the U.S. version of the 'Jewish holocaust', a propaganda event promoted to justify every crime committed in the interest of the Bush, the U.S. government or official U.S. interests. In the same way in which the 'Jewish holocaust' is used to bludgeon any resistance or criticism of Zionism into silence, the attacks of 11 September are being used to silence any opponent of Bush's policies.

At the risk of being labelled callous, it is precisely now, as we approach the 'anniversary' of 11 September, that we must be loud and firm in our denunciation of this propaganda campaign. Whether or not the attacks that took place on 11 September were genuine, they have been deliberately exploited by the American government and media to attempt to justify blatant and unjustifiable acts of aggression against sovereign nations as well as crimes against individuals and the deprivation of fundamental liberties and human rights. The casualties of the attacks have been nothing more than a propaganda tool in the hands of Bush and his minions and the grief of their families fuel to stoke the flames of war-mongering hysteria promoted by the U.S. government and media. It is time to put a stop to this outrageous display of hypocrisy. It is time to let the dead rest in peace, and to put the events of 11 September 2001 in some perspective. Otherwise, we shall be in danger of falling victims to the same s ort of perpetual cycle of manipulation that characterises the Jewish 'holocaust' and its promoters. We must speak out on behalf of the REAL victims of 11 September and take a stand against the U.S./Zionist foreign policy perpetuating this fraud.

Note: For a more detailed analysis of U.S. so-called 'anti-terrorist' legislation, please see: The U.S. War Against Freedom by Nabila Harb